Blog Stats

Flag Counter since 20091011

Hit Count Since 20110428

Archive for September 30th, 2011

This is the NS Savannah. It was the only cargo ship ever built powered by a Nuclear Reactor (Currently Decommissioned). It was launched in 1959. Currently it is berthed in Southeast Baltimore. I remember taking a tour of the ship in the early 60’s. It is also a National Landmark. On our cruise earlier this month, we passed the ship on our way out of Baltimore Harbor. Read the website for more info on the ship.

This website was created to help educate and inform the public about the history of the Nuclear Ship Savannah by exploring the ship’s design, construction, voyages, and the crew and passengers that sailed on her. It includes text and photographs from a variety of sources in an attempt to provide a single forum for information and news – past, present, and future – on the N/S SAVANNAH itself and the future of nuclear power in merchant ships. This site also supports and reports on the activities of the Maritime Administration (owner/licensee of the ship) and the N/S SAVANNAH Association, Inc., (a non-profit corporation dedicated to preserving the ship).

EDIT The Ship is featured in The APRIL 1962 Volume of the National Geographic Magazine

Rate this:

Share this:

Like this:

While I have a moment here I might as well comment on a phenomenon I’ve noticed recently; though I make no claim that it is a necessarily recent phenomenon, nor that it is a widespread one. Just one that a potential variation from my normal habits caused me to take note of.

I think in the last several months it’s happened about oh, three or four times, maybe five times.

While driving to the office relatively late, and after not having eaten breakfast, it occurred to me to take advantage of the “drive-thru” at a McDonalds which is a couple miles from my house and which I pass by on my way to the office.

Now, I know it’s not exactly a healthy choice, and that even under time pressures, there are better alternatives. But I chose it anyway. See, I had a B-vitamin pill slurry sloshing nauseatingly around my otherwise empty stomach, and exemptions were justified. At least that’s what I told myself.

That said, there turned out to be no real reason for guilt after all. My new pathway to sin more resembled that of the kid who tries to buy beer and fails, than the one who succeeds.

For I was never able to force myself to bear the wait necessary to obtain said forbidden fruit. Why not? Well, in each instance there were nine or more cars lined up waiting to order. That’s why. The last two times, disbelieving what I was experiencing, I actually counted them: 13 and 11 respectively.

Now what this is all about is not really how many cars there were, nor my cholesterol saving impatience, but the socially significant fact of who was in all those cars that blocked my way and prevented my from fall from dietary grace.

Other than the couple of guys in tradesman vans you might expect, those populating the queues of suppliants yearning for the Mikey D experience, were nearly all very late middle-aged, or just-elderly, women.

That’s who, figuratively speaking, elbowed me out of the food line. A bunch of grandmas.

What’s the world coming to when even Grandma can’t be trusted to do the right thing, while I do the wrong?

Now, if you want to split hairs, they are of course, technically speaking, free to eat whatever they like. And, if you insist on being a killjoy about it, I guess I don’t really even know for certain what it was that they were buying there at McDonalds, at 9:30 in the morning.

But it just kind of surprised me, and brought home more forcefully than ever, how the generations now living, even the older generations, are so thoroughly co-opted by, and apparently comfortable with, “the program”.

And … and … well, who can we rely on to do the right thing, if we can’t rely on America’s old ladies? I mean, shouldn’t they be pruning roses, or watering the raspberry patch, or interfering in vestry affairs, rather than spewing carbon monoxide into the atmosphere and shamelessly gorging themselves on Egg McMuffins?

Aren’t there even any sixties era types left who remain true to the “whole foods” movement, and who, as a result, do not conspicuously clog up the McDonalds’ drive-thru??

They must still exist somewhere! Just look at how many Democrats continue to be elected.

I guess it’s just that they, and their McDonalds, are found in another part of town …

Like this:

Samir Kahn, 25, was born in Saudi Arabia but grew up in New York. He later returned to the Middle East and began publishing the popular e-zine “Inspire” in an effort to educate English-speaking youth in world politics by speaking in their own vernacular.

I can’t do this. I can’t sanitize this dirtbag. Dude was a Mohammedan terrorist, a major cog in Al Qaeda, and at war with the US, and the rest of the civilized world for that matter. “Inspire” e-zine was a Mohammedan terrorist propaganda program intent on getting more young Americans and other young westerners to commit acts of Mohammedan terrorism against the West. Dude is buzzard food, and rightly so. The first attack missed him but the second one got him. Some other Mohammedan terrorist also bought it in the drone attacks, and his name was…

Anwar al Awlaki.

The American born Al Qaeda leader in Yemen. The man with ties to Mohammedan terrorist and mass murderer Nidal Hasan. The man who plotted the underwear bomb, the cargo plane “computer printer” bombs, and many other Mohammedan terrorist attacks and attempts. He got fried, along with several of his body guards. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

Awlaki has a long history of terrorism against the US. At first considered a moderate cleric — the Bush administration invited him to the Pentagon as part of their outreach program after 9/11 — he became a suspect in the 9/11 attacks after at least three of the hijackers were traced to his mosque. Awlaki fled the US and eventually masterminded the Christmas Day underwear plot in 2009 as well as a later plot to destroy cargo airplanes bound for the US, and at least inspired the Fort Hood massacre and other so-called “lone wolf” attacks.
…
Assuming that Awlaki is really dead, though, this could be a bigger operational deal than getting bin Laden. Awlaki’s group, AQAP, was by far the most active internationally among AQ affiliates, and his intimate knowledge of the US made him a dangerous foe. His death won’t be the end of AQ’s attempts to create home-grown jihadis and infiltrators, but it will make that task a lot more difficult.

But RS McCain notes some serious sanitizing going on in the mainstream media. (Is anyone surprised?) The New York Times called Awlaki a “preacher,” then waited until paragraph 24, when a large percentage of people would have quit reading, to note the guy was Mohammedan. Couldn’t call him a “Muslim cleric” to start out, now, could they? CBS called him an alleged, suspected, reportedly terrorist. Ya think?

Professor Jacobson reports on all the usual Leftist suspects crying in their lattes over the fact the Al Qaeda leader who was at war with the US was killed instead of taken to court. He was at war, and violating the Geneva Convention in the process. He knew the risks in going to war with the US — you get dead — and did it anyway.

Obama’s far left flank will be unhappy if the mission to kill Awlaki, an American citizen, was successful. They will again decry such drone strikes against American citizens as unprecedented and lawless.

On this, I will come to Obama’s defense.

Awlaki’s membership and leadership in al Qaeda is undisputed.

We are at war.

The Supreme Court set the precedent for Obama’s and our military’s actions in 1942.

My friends at top counterjihad blog The Jawa Report have been on Khan for years and helped shut down several of his jihad-inciting blogs after tracking him across the Internet (he went by the name “Inshallahshaheed”).

I previously reported on the voting public’s positions on various issues and their stance opposing Democrat positions. A plurality (44 percent) are fiscal Conservatives while a small minority (11 percent) are fiscal Liberals. 2/3 want the border controlled before dealing with any other possible illegal immigrant solutions. The numbers regarding educating illegal immigrants gets more glaring, with 4 out of 5 saying they don’t want illegal immigrants to get in-state tuition rates. Over 7 in 10 Hispanic voters in “battleground” states approve of Voter ID. The majority of voters favor repealing ObamaCare, 20 points above those who don’t want it repealed. All of these issues have the Democrat party on the wrong side of the voting public.

But there’s more, as the late-night infomercials say. The next batch of polling numbers are again opposing Democrat party positions.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of American Adults shows that 60% favor the death penalty, while 28% oppose it. Another 12% are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

This is little changed from surveys dating back to November 2009, with support for capital punishment running from 61% to 63%.

Over 2/3 of men and a majority of women support the Death Penalty. Over 3/4 of Republicans and 6 in 10 independents support the Death Penalty. And the Democrat base is evenly divided on the issue. While a bare majority of blacks oppose the Death Penalty, a clear majority of Whites and non-black minorities support the Death Penalty. So as an issue, the Democrat party leadership is on the wrong side.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely Voters shows that 56% are in favor of a balanced budget amendment while 22% are opposed and another 22% are undecided.
…
Most Republicans (68%) and voters not affiliated with either party (54%) support a balanced budget amendment. So do a plurality of Democrats (46%).

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 71% of Likely U.S. Voters favor establishing term limits for all members of Congress. Just 14% oppose setting such limits, and 15% are undecided about them.

Fifty-seven percent (57%) of Likely U.S. Voters think free market competition is more likely than government subsidies and regulation to help the United States develop alternative sources of energy. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 27% believe government subsidies and regulations are the better way to go. Sixteen percent (16%) are not sure.

But then 71% of voters say private sector companies and investors are better than government officials when it comes to determining the long-term benefits and potential of new technologies. Sixty-four percent (64%) think it’s likely that if a private company which cannot find investors gets funding from the government, that money will be wasted.

If private investors aren’t willing to put money into a company, only 17% of voters think the federal government should provide loan guarantees or loans to help keep such a company in business. Fifty-nine percent (59%) say the government should not provide money for an alternative energy company after private investors refuse to invest in it. Twenty-three percent (23%) are not sure.

More voters say being “pro-gun” is good and “union supported” is bad than say the reverse. 6 in 10 Americans believe if the Government raises taxes to reduce the deficit, it will only cause more Government spending (which means the public isn’t buying the Democrat party’s “the Republicans don’t want to raise taxes so they’re not serious about the debt” false dichotomy fallacy), while the majority believe if the Government agrees to cut spending, no spending will actually be cut (which means the public knows the Government’s history).